10 Tips for Making Your SharePoint Project a Success

While SharePoint, as an advanced web application development platform, has become widely used for its many benefits, several organizations fail to emerge successful with a SharePoint project. So, prior to looking into the tips on making SharePoint project a success, here is what one should avoid doing at the time of implementation of SP.

Mistakes to Avoid in SP Project Implementation

• Trying to accomplish too many tasks within very less time is one of the common mistakes committed by enterprises. It needs to be realized by the stakeholders as well that the specific needs will be catered to and fulfilled in future if not right now.
• Point searching several websites that are quite large is a mistake for the reason that there is no possible way of limiting the volume of data in the search catalogs of SP. As a result, SP will simply index numerous pages while also bringing the server down.
• The attempt at doing everything including delivering projects in house leads to a failed outcome. Unless the enterprise has quite a large team, emerging successful with a SharePoint project is but a rare possibility.
• Allowing any one individual to exercise complete control of permissions is a blunder. This is because users with full permission can take certain wrong steps such as adding a lot of content, deleting sites, giving inappropriate permissions and so on.

Tips on Enjoying a Successful SharePoint Project

Once you are aware of the things to be avoided, it is time to concentrate on few tips or strategies, applying which paves the way for an effective SharePoint project. Here is a list of these:

1. Making Use of Standard Functionality

Configuration is always preferred over coding. SharePoint is immensely powerful and mistaking it for just a .NET application should be avoided. As such, spending on other resources instead of spending too much on coding makes it easier to support as well as upgrade the site.

2. Understanding the Technology

Understanding SharePoint thoroughly is essential in the very first place. One should gain the basic knowledge of SP in order to be able to not just deploy it in the desired manner but also encounter the issues, as and when they arise.

3. Empowering the Users and Delegates

When it comes to executing a SharePoint project with success, one must not be apprehensive of handing down the rights to create sites or author content and so on. Alongside, use of publishing control, version control along with workflows to adhere to quality and policy of the organization should also be facilitated.

4. Focusing on Simple Visual Designs

With respect to the SharePoint user interface, more emphasis should be laid on the functionality of the site instead of its looks. Let the designers know what matters most for a SharePoint site from the very beginning, as customizing it later might appear to be a rather tough task.

5. Never Planning for the End

This might appear to be rather tricky but it has to be remembered that a project in SP, unlike others, does not end but expands with the growth of the business. What is necessary is to take an interactive approach and let users understand as well as contribute to the process of repeating till the desired goal is achieved.

6. Managing Expectations Arising from Different Quarters

Every SP project will essentially begin with two figures set as goal, one of cost and the other of delivery date. One must always stay careful about managing the expectations of the senior managers by means of giving them high level costs as well as timescales.

7. Allowing the Permission Model to Stay Simple

The permission model, especially the structures, should be kept as simple as possible. Building complex structures implies managing too much in return of too less a value.

8. Choosing the Partner Carefully

It is more than necessary to have a partner, who understands both the technology as well as the NHS. Partners should be the ones you can trust no matter how much you test or challenge them. Mutual advice and cooperation paves the way for appreciable results.

9. Convince Even the Rather Stubborn Customers

The best way of engaging the stubborn customers are by considering and appreciating their requirements as well as ideas. It has to be remembered in this respect that the stubborn ones are also the most vocal ones and hence, they can turn out to be the real assets for an enterprise.

10. Be Ready to Take Risks

As the saying goes, 'No risk, no gain', it is always good to take risks than stay back in apprehension. Try out varying strategies and trust the users enough to gain the desired success in the usage of SharePoint.

Implementing the 10 points suggested above greatly amplifies the chances of getting successful with SharePoint application development, leading to the benefit of the enterprises.

We provide custom Sharepoint development services. If you would like to know more about the expertise of our SharePoint developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Gartner Calls Sharepoint an "Evolutionary Dead End" that "No One Likes Using"

As per the views of Jeffrey Mann, a Gartner analyst, Microsoft should soon do away with SharePoint and companies that are largely dependent on the platform should actually consider a more cloud-based future. The Gartner analyst also said that though a majority of the companies make use of SharePoint, they do not quite like it. SP is also less functional and less useful in many respects. Moreover, it does not facilitate smooth content migration and requires greater amount of online management.

With SharePoint being customized in most organizations, it also appears to be excessively big and complex. Certain businesses are also making use of older versions of this web application development platform. With regards to the question of whether to move to cloud or move out of it, Mann says that Microsoft should essentially move SP to the cloud by means of killing its current form.

The enterprise social networking platform, on the other hand, comes up as a hope for Microsoft, as both of these compliment each other in multiple ways. SP, on becoming more cloud- based, will have a strong influence by Yammer.

However, the problems regarding the on-premise deployment of SP, slower arrival of upgrades, lower functionality will remain the same. Hence, a cloud- based solution is considered more beneficial for the large-sized organizations. In fact, Mann advises the technologists to start developing plans for post- SharePoint scenario.

Reasons behind People Disliking SharePoint

While Gartner declares SharePoint to be an evolutionary dead end, there are quite a few reasons behind people hating SP. Surveys conducted at different points of time also point out to negative sentiments. Here is an overview of some of the causes behind this dislike:

It Takes Too Long a Time to be Deployed

One major problem with SP is that the deployment process is quite elaborate and time- consuming. Presence of technical difficulties often make it rather impossible to get done with the deployment process within the allotted time. An unnecessary delay is certainly undesirable because it compels organizations to lose valuable time and resources.

SP Requires Assistance of Third-Party Tools

Enterprises realize that SharePoint cannot be used “out-of-the-box”. Augmentation of the platform for the purpose of fulfilling the specific business requirements is nearly impossible without the use of the third-party tools. Governance is perhaps the biggest technical issue when it comes to the implementation of the development platform. Managing the metadata and taxonomies is equally difficult. It is for these reasons that 50% of organizations are planning heavily on having the third-party add-on products.

SharePoint Promises to Handle Too Many Tasks

SP has always been promoted and marketed as a solution to several problems and issues. Now, whether it is document management, corporate intranet, project management, wiki or blog, SharePoint promises to handle it all. Consequently, the end result is often far from being satisfactory.

User Experience is Nothing Satisfactory

It has been revealed by certain surveys that users are not really happy using SharePoint. Individuals who find it difficult to handle this particular platform prefer going back to the original business process for smooth operations and better accomplishment of projects.

Lesser Mobile Device Access to SharePoint

SharePoint's mobile device access is slow and ineffective. The dissatisfaction about the matter has been expressed by many users. The issue automatically prevents the users from staying updated and productive, no matter where they are.

How to Lead to Successful SP Implementation and User Experience?

In spite of the many difficulties associated with SharePoint, the platform is actually of several benefits. Here is a list of tips and strategies, following which SP can be made more acceptable.

• A well-defined deployment process should be planned beforehand. This plan should also consider the needs of the business users apart from that of the tech savvy ones.
• The project must focus on business solutions. For instance, it should take into account the ease with which SP can be accessed from anywhere.
• Integrating SP into the everyday work flow of a business user is also essential.

Apart from the above-mentioned strategies, one can also go by Jeffrey Mann's advice, that is to use the third party tools to cover up for the deficiencies of SharePoint.

We provide SharePoint migration services. If you would like to know more about the expertise of our SharePoint developers India, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Design Manager in SharePoint 2013 Designer - A Detailed Introduction

Understanding the Design Manager
Design Manager is primarily meant to help the users of SharePoint create custom designs and achieve the respective goals if they want SharePoint 2013 to represent the brand of the organization. It comes up as a particular feature in SP 2013, paving the way for a completely customized, pixel-perfect outcome using the familiar web designing tools. As a publishing feature, it is available in the publishing sites in both Office 365 and SP server 2013.

This extremely useful feature allows the creation of visual design for websites using the web designing tools and HTML editor. Only HTML and CSS can be used after which the design has to be uploaded into SP. Basically, it enables management of each aspect of a custom design.

So, designers using this excellent feature will have to precisely undertake the following activities:

• Grasping and understanding the main SP design concepts
• Creating a mock-up of the design in CSS and HTML
• Implementing the same utilizing the Design Manager feature

Implementing a Design by Means of the Design Manager

It is essential for the SharePoint 2013 users to be aware of the usage of the feature in implementing designs. On looking at the feature, one gets to see a series of links representing the high-level tasks to be performed. Following is a step-by-step sequence in which the task of implementing a design is executed with success:

Prior to Making Use of Design Manager
Even before you start using the feature, you have to create an individual design or use a ready-made website template. While mocking up the sites in HTML and CSS, you will come across certain HTML files implementing designs for the particular way in which you want the different pages to appear. You also need to take the necessary SharePoint permissions, more particularly, you have to be at the Designer permission level to use the feature.

Management of Device Channels
Before starting right away with the task of designing your site exploiting this essential feature, you need to take into account the specific devices to be targeted and the kind of user experience on each of them. Once you have considered the specific device channels, it is time to use multiple ways in rendering a single publishing site by means of mapping varying designs to equally varying devices.

Now, the device channels, which are created as well as stored in the SP list, have ranking and therefore, the order of the same also matters. The inclusion rules are also processed accordingly.

Uploading the Designed Files
Once the designing is done, the designer can use any HTML editor of his preference and work with files locally on the specific computer. However, these files need to be uploaded to the Master Page Gallery of the SP site so as to enable the feature to convert, preview and at the same time, polish the already created design.

The best- possible way to upload as well as continue working on these files is by mapping a drive on the computer to the Master Page gallery of the SP site. This paves the way for a folder on the computer to be connected to the Master Page Gallery. The result is that one can work on files that are present on the server in SP 2013 provided that they are local files.

Editing the Master Pages
The next task is to create a fully branded master page containing all of the functionality of SharePoint that one wants. The steps through which the editing is done are:

• Conversion of HTML file into a SP master page
• Previewing the master page while also facilitating fixing of the possible issues
• Addition of the SP snippets to the master page

Editing Display Templates
In the event of using the on-premises installation of the SharePoint server, one has the option of using the Content Search Web Part along with a few other search- driven web parts. This helps in the display of the results of the search queries as content on the pages. Now, the search-driven web parts make use of the display templates for two main purposes. These are firstly to map managed properties returned in the search result items to properties that are available for JavaScript. This includes any custom JavaScript that one chooses to implement. The second purpose is to make use of CSS and HTML to find out how these properties are displayed.

Editing Page Layouts
The process involving the creation of page layout in Design Manner is somewhat different from that of creating a master page. First, a page layout needs to be made using the .aspx file and HTML file. Following this, the associated HTML file has to be edited from the mapped drive in the HTML editor. The feature ensures that the page layout is created in a manner that the correct set of page fields get added to the page layout.

Apart from the above-mentioned steps, creating themes and composed looks, publishing and applying the designs and creation of the package of the same are the final steps to be taken when it comes to using Design Manager in SharePoint 2013 development projects.

We provide SharePoint CMS customization services. If you would like to know more about the expertise of our SharePoint developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

5 ways to spruce up SharePoint 2013 for your intranet CMS

One of the biggest drawbacks that affect content management is the lack of proper search plug-ins. In the current scenario, businesses do not have adequate amount of time for tracking down different files. SharePoint comes to rescue in such a situation.

SharePoint intranet comes with convenient document libraries, enabling every business to categorize information in the way they want. In fact, you can have all your content easily accessible by means of different libraries within a hosted portal- a library for media, one for finance, report, sales, marketing and so on. The inconvenience of lost data will never be experienced. The intranet also comprises the latest antiviral software for ensuring preservation of online infrastructure.

As a business owner or team member, SP allows you to open up documents through the web, and also to synchronize work via document collaboration. In short, SharePoint provides a collaborative, hosted solution for content management through the intranet. Investing in SharePoint development for org-wide collaboration always pays rich dividends. Let us discuss 5 trending ways which will help you to spruce up SharePoint 2013 for your intranet CMS.

1. Creation of an intranet newsfeed with SP 2013
With the help of an intranet newsfeed, users are able to publicly and rapidly communicate with each other by sharing ideas, posting updates, asking questions along with other activities. So far as the management is concerned, it is a great means for engaging with employees personally, directly and openly. Moreover, the SharePoint newsfeed renders a micro-blogging experience similar to that derived from social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Users are able to post comments, direct particular users with the help of @targeting as well as tag the same to a particular topic utilizing #tags. Comments or users can be liked or followed.

2. Showcasing intranet blogs with SP 2013
Intranet blogs are a brilliant way to discuss on relevant topics providing authors with the capability of communicating a message as well as starting conversation and collecting feedback. Readers can have their opinions heard and addressed. Authoring and publishing tools are offered by the SharePoint blog site to authors, in the same manner as they would expect from a consumer CMS. The features include the ability of video embedding from sources such as YouTube, rich text editing, capability of content publishing directly from MS Word. It is possible to like, rate, follow or share blog posts.

3. Using SharePoint 2013 for creation of intranet survey
With the help of intranet surveys, creators are able to speedily crowd source precious information from a huge employee pool. As participants, employees can get an easy means for bottom-up feedback and hence become more engaged. The SharePoint survey app offers a template to easily as well as quickly build surveys with diverse question types (multiple choice, text fields, rating scales). On completion of the surveys, results are represented graphically with the facility of exporting to Excel. The promoted links app of SharePoint builds metro-style tiles along with a hover-over state in order to make room for additional text information. The advantage is that tiles offer increasing visual engagement as against a standard list, following the SP site's theme.

4. Leveraging SP 2013 for surfacing intranet KPIs
With regular and convenient access to KPIs, employees can adjust their activities to accommodate the changing business demands. Enhanced visibility of performance metrics at an organizational level helps in greater employee collaboration. With the help of the Excel Web Access Web Part, data can be displayed from an Excel spreadsheet straightaway onto a SharePoint page. Granular control can be maintained by the author over the data that can be displayed from the spreadsheet and accessed. Once it surfaces on the SP page, the data can be made user-interactive.

5. Using SharePoint 2013 for creation of an intranet discussion list
Through intranet discussion lists, users can discuss specific topics with subject matter experts and their peers. It can be used for diverse purposes helping employees draw the benefits of a wide organizational network of resources and knowledge. Forum-style collaboration areas can be created with the help of SP Community Site Features. Using the discussion list, users can start discussions or ask questions. Moreover, categorization of the content can be done.

For creating an engaging and dynamic intranet CMS, SharePoint 2013 is loaded with all the requisite functionality. Great outcomes can be enjoyed by those who comprehend the changing intranet demands and leverage this new functionality.

We provide SharePoint application development services. If you would like to discuss with an expert SharePoint developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Top 8 Ways to Mitigate Risks in SharePoint Deployment

Deployment of the useful web application development platform of SharePoint involves certain risks. The SharePoint sites, which primarily include the SharePoint Online and the hosted SharePoint farms, have high chances of falling prey to some of the serious content security risks. Considering the fact that SP Online is highly preferred by all types of enterprises today for regulation of data, securing this data is a dire necessity. In fact, organizations are often found facing certain problems when it comes to maintaining the security of the data in SharePoint. The risks need to be mitigated without any wastage of time to ensure smooth work flow.

Here is a brief overview of the risks involved in SP deployment along with the possible ways of reducing their effects.

1. Less Awareness about SharePoint Content

The lack of awareness about SP content is a prominent risk in the deployment of this particular web application development platform. The two main ways of spreading increased awareness are implementation of the governance guidelines along with providing of content classification. The end users should be trained accordingly for performing periodic scans of content. Teams also have the option of making use of the SP metadata as well as workflows to pass the sensitive information to the secure locations.

2. Failing to Secure the Content in SP Servers, Transit and Endpoints

Securing the content in the SharePoint servers as well as endpoints is necessary. Enterprises must make it a point to implement solutions that ensure the security of the content on the SP servers as well as the backups through access control and encryption. Additionally, the teams should also go for a whole-disk encryption for endpoints and most essentially, laptops. The SSL encryption for data in transit should also be enabled by the security administrators.

3. Misconfiguration of the Access Controls and Permissions

This is yet another risk that often poses a problem in the deployment of SharePoint. The solution lies in auditing the existing SharePoint permissions and then reviewing or creating of the corporate access control policies. Following this, the SP permissions should be aligned with the corporate directory services, by which, the administrators can get an idea about the usage of inheritance as well as unmanaged item-level permissions.

4. SP Platform Security Risks

The SharePoint platforms need to be hardened by means of disabling the ports as well as services that are not essential to the functioning of the platform. Regular patching apart from whitelisting of applications also helps in reducing the risks of platform security.

5. Failing to Limit the Administrator and Service Accounts

One essential way in which the risk of failing to limit the administrator as well as service accounts can be reduced is by limiting the privileges on service accounts. Disabling the install account and not using the shared administrator accounts are other prominent ways of mitigating this particular risk.

6. SP System Architecture and Network Configuration Issues

The system architecture as well as network configuration issues related to the SharePoint can be reduced by putting a dedicated SP web front end in a DMZ and by making use of a single-function-per-server approach. Hardening of the SP, OS as well as the database as per the best practices is also highly recommended.

7. Issues Related to SP and Malware

Risks arising from SharePoint as well as Malware can be solved by implementation of the server malware solution along with a regular updating of the anti-virus definitions.

8. Difficulty in Performing Backups and Providing DR Capability

The only possible way in which this problem can be solved is by performing annual backups as well as tests and restoring them on a regular basis.

Managing the above-mentioned security risks through an application of the appropriate security controls helps in reducing the level of content security as well as compliance risks in SP to a great extent. If you were to attempt a SharePoint site migration project, understanding of these best practices would ensure a successful migration.

We provide SharePoint bespoke development services. If you would like to know more about the expertise of our SharePoint programmers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Getting Started Developing for SharePoint 2010?

The process of developing for SharePoint is naturally quite elaborate and encompasses several steps. In order to have a complete overview of the development on this much popular and preferred web application platform, it is good to go step-by-step and accordingly, begin with a conceptual overview of the SharePoint foundation.

Understanding SharePoint Foundation

The application of Microsoft SP Foundation is built on top of the Microsoft ASP.NET framework and the Internet Information Services. Server Farm, which is basically a set of servers running the various components of SharePoint Foundation, also comprises more than one front-end web servers along with Microsoft SQL server database servers. Every farm has an individual configuration database consisting of information about the front-end web servers in the administrators of the farm. Each content including that of the user information, on the other hand, is stored in the content database while the server farms too have multiple content databases.

Choosing the Best-Suited SharePoint API

Microsoft SP comes with three different types of APIs and the next question that arises with regards to the development on this platform is which of the APIs to be used. Here is an overview of the three kinds along with their advantages and limitations.

• Server-Side Object Model

To begin with, there is the server-side object model coming up with a wide range of options for extending the capabilities of SP 2010. The good part of this is that it has all APIs that are documented in the SP 2010 Class Libraries and Web Service References section of the MS SP 2010 software development kit.

• Client Object Model

The client object model allows for integration of SharePoint 2010 capabilities into script. This can be executed in the browser or code, in a .NET framework managed application or in a Microsoft Silverlight application. The APIs in this particular model act as wrappers around a customized web service, dispatching the calls to the server- side object model.

• SharePoint 2010 Web Services

The SP 2010 web services pave the way for an integration of the SP capabilities into a code that runs in a client- side or server-side applications remotely. This specific variety offers a limited set of REST interfaces for developers, who happen to be familiar with the particular standard.

Glide Path for ASP.NET Developers

This area concerns the use of SharePoint Foundation as an ASP.NET application. Developers must be aware of the manner in which development differs with respect to ASP.NET and SharePoint. The areas that need to be taken into account are mobile adapter development, modification of Web.config files, page development as well as user and group authorization.

SharePoint Foundation Development Tools

Several tools are implemented when it comes to developing solutions for this remarkable web application development platform. These tools can accordingly be customized to maximize the efficiency of the developer and lead to a better outcome. The setting up of the development environment for SP 2010 on Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 is an essential consideration. At the same time, one must also be informed about the usage of visual studio and SharePoint designer for SP development.

Important SharePoint Programming Tasks

A number of SharePoint programming tasks are taken up as a part of the process of developing for SP 2010. Following are some of these tasks:

• Conversion of date as well as time values
• Description of forms of URL strings
• Addition or deleting of list items
• Returning items from a list
• Registering as well as Importing of Namespaces
• Security validation and making of posts to update data

Knowing about the Best Practices

When it comes to development on the highly advanced platform of SP 2010, understanding the best practices is essential to ensure perfect execution of the task. Some of the best practices include the following:

• Avoidance of the suspended impersonation of the calling user
• Avoidance of unnecessary construction of SPWeb and SPSite objects
• Disposal of objects
• Restrictions on file naming
• Techniques of object caching
• Optimizing of the code performance

The above-mentioned steps offer an overview of how the development process can take place in a smooth manner. If you were to attempt a SharePoint site migration project, understanding of these best practices would ensure a successful migration.

We provide SharePoint bespoke development services. If you would like to know more about the expertise of our SharePoint programmers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Setting up a social strategy for SharePoint? Here are tips to get started

With the launch of SharePoint 2013 by Microsoft, social business became the talk of the day, with SP gradually moving towards becoming a company's social hub. Last year, Microsoft acquired Yammer, and is planning to tie up the same with SharePoint as well as other wares of Microsoft ranging from Dynamics to SkyDrive. My Sites along with Community sites have been introduced by SharePoint 2013, and these aid in internal business collaboration by providing a social interface. These are also designed to make use of the security as well as other enterprise or business management features that SharePoint has. This implies a genuine extension of collaboration among partners and work-groups.

According to R.Wang, leading social business analyst, going social might close the gap between execution and strategy, measurement and execution, as well as strategy and measurement. Organizations understand that SP might be a platform for integration of these technologies thereby bringing in innovation, provided there is a proper plan and strategy for social business.

Let us discuss briefly about three of the major social aspects of SharePoint 2013, namely My Sites, Community Sites as well as the new Newsfeed. All of these distinguish SP from its predecessors and make upgradation a forward-thinking smart decision.

Community Sites
Creating a new Community Site has become very convenient. You simply need to select Community Site from the list within SharePoint available for Collaboration site templates. As per the community's business role, site owners can go for selection of four permission levels:

• Private: Selected members can view or go for interaction with the community.
• Closed: Content can be read by end users but only those members receiving approved requests would be able to contribute content.
• Open with explicit membership: Content can be read by end users, who would also be able to automatically join the community for contributing content.
• Open: Content can be contributed by anybody.

Like other SharePoint subsites, the Community Site template would be able to disinherit or inherit permissions from its parent site. The fundamental permissions as well as security constructs remain similar. Community Sites just build on this construct utilizing the permission levels. In spite of the presence of this architecture, it is always considered a better practice to make use of unique permissions for management of community membership. It is essential for organizations making use of communities at the site level to become well-versed with this setup. Moreover, community moderators can gain access to features such as offensive content reporting or alerts which enable them to follow discussions more effectively.

My Sites
My Sites is capable of giving users exactly what their requirement is- rapid access to their things. Presently a user is able to follow people, documents or sites. This 'follow' mechanism helps in the automatic creation of lists which are rendered in the user's My Site, both on the Newsfeed page and also on the My Sites homepage.

Moreover, with the help of My Sites, a user is capable of having one click access to the sites he or she follows. It also recommends other sites the user might find interesting or useful, based on a number of criteria.

Newsfeed
Newsfeeds refer to content that is dynamically updated and generated through the activities indulged in by fellow users. These incorporate the currently omnipresent hashtags as well as '@ mentions', and resemble Facebook or Twitter feeds closely. Unlike the case of external social networks, organizations are able to exercise some amount of control over the activities that would be appearing across the Newsfeed from the User Profile Service Application. On the Newsfeed Settings screen, there are provisions for a user to have considerable control over e-mail notifications, hash-tags, and so on.

It is true that in order to make use of these tools, the enterprise architecture does incur some cost such as licensing costs, software and hardware considerations, along with architecture to render support to redundancy as well as performance. But the benefits are indeed far-fetched. Leveraging the social features present in SharePoint development platform with the proper strategy can help organizations effectively manage their social business interaction while at the same time safeguarding intellectual property and content.

We provide SharePoint site migration services. If you would like to know more about the expertise of our SharePoint programmers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Introducing MVC Support for Apps for SharePoint

SharePoint, which has already established itself as one of the most popular and preferred web application development platforms, works more effectively when incorporated with certain apps. Apps are those powerful website applications that add to the effectiveness of the platforms. These days, the ASP.NET.MVC has become a preferred mode of project application.

ASP.NET.MVC offers web developers with several advantages. To begin with, it comes up with a really pattern- based and powerful platform that allows easy building of dynamic websites. These websites, in turn, pave the way for separating different aspects such as that of the view, model and controller of the app. At the same time, the app provides full control over markup to offer a good experience of development.

SharePoint portal development with MVC as a remote project requires one to follow a two-step process. Firstly, this particular sort of project development needs to be created and secondly, one has to engage in what can be considered as the 'app-etizing' of the concerned web project. This is done with the purpose of adding an application for SharePoint.

When an auto-hosted or provider- hosted app for SharePoint is created in the Preview of the Visual Studio 2013, you get the option of choosing the type of the web application project. Once the procedure is accomplished and you click on the Finish button, the Visual Studio automatically takes up the following tasks:

• Creation of the application for the project
• Creation of the MVC website application project
• Addition of the SharePoint-references to the said project
• Addition of helper classes to that of the particular project

A working app for SharePoint with this advanced sort of web app is now ready. The following steps would encompass pressing F5 to debug the app. Now, Visual Studio deploys this app for SharePoint to the site of the specified developer. This is accompanied by a starting of the Internet Information Services or IIS Express and finally, running of your MVC website application. A browser is then opened to the home page of the app, in this case, the particular app that we are talking about.

A default template is created out of the box and it comes with the About, Home and Contact pages apart from some sample code. These sample code show you the way of interacting with SharePoint. The code helps in the creation of a client context for the host web while also retrieving the current user name, which is displayed in the home page.

The MVC website application project also offers a set of APIs, which involves a series of steps for the web project to communicate to SharePoint in a rather smooth manner and that too, in a single call. The SharePoint context filter takes up the additional processing for getting standard information when redirected from SharePoint to the remote web application, for instance, Host Web URL. Additionally, it also determines as to whether the application has to be redirected to SharePoint for the user to sign in. This is particularly applicable in case of bookmarks. This filter can be applied either for the purpose of viewing or to the controller.

The context classes of SharePoint incorporate all the data and information so that one can quite easily create particular contexts for the app web as well as the host web directly and thereby communicate with the platform. The introduction of the MVC support for apps turns out to be of substantial help provided that one is aware of the right ways of engaging in the process.

We provide SharePoint development services. If you would like to hire SharePoint developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Which IT Services Companies Offer the Best SharePoint Support?

In addition to being a rapid web application development platform, Microsoft SharePoint is also used by enterprises to management content and documents. Also, the platform enables users to manage a variety of data on the intranet and internet. As Microsoft has designed SharePoint with a Microsoft Office-like interface, the platform can be seamlessly integrated with Office suite. So your business can avail several advantages by switching to SharePoint 2010.

When you decide to migrate to the latest version of the platform, it becomes essential to make and implement a detailed plan. At the same time, it is also important to choose the right IT services company to avail customized and flexible SharePoint support. A simple web search will get you information about the nature and types of support offered by a large number of companies. But you must evaluate the service providers based on some key criterions to ensure that you will get the best SharePoint support.

5 Key Criterions to Evaluate the IT Services Companies Offering SharePoint Support

1. Customized Support: The level of support offered by different IT services companies vary. Some companies even allow you to choose from several predefined SharePoint support plans. But you must opt for the companies who offer customized support according to specific needs of your business. When the support is customized, you will not be required to pay for unnecessary services. As the support services are customized according to your business model and work flow, these will contributing towards increasing productivity and revenues.

2. Specialized Support: Most IT companies offer a variety of support services. So the nature and quality of the SharePoint support will depend on the experience and expertise of the company. You must gather information about the services offered by a specific company from various sources, and compare the data to ensure that it has adequate expertise in providing support for SharePoint. An experienced service provider will further contribute towards efficient project management and communication. Also, it can work seamlessly with your internal team by creating the best environment.

3. Effective Content Management: When you are using SharePoint to manage your content, records and documents, it becomes essential to consider several factors. Along with recording the documents in digital format, it is also important to store the images of the original documents in a centralized location. At the same time, any updates or changes made to the documents must reflect across different workstations. So you must check the effectiveness of content management service provided by the IT company. It is important to hire a company who can guarantee that your employees can monitor, track and access the updated content regardless of its physical location.

4. Ready to Embrace New Technologies: The huge popularity of SharePoint application development platform has encouraged many companies to launch CRM and ERP packages with specific integration capability. So you can always migrate to the latest enterprise application software to optimize your business process and communication. Also, Microsoft regularly updates SharePoint with many extended and innovative features. That is why; there are always chances that your business has to migrate to or embrace more advanced technologies. It is always important to hire the IT company that agrees to incorporate the changes relates to technology and system without causing any slight delay.

5. Quick and Immediate Solution for Each Problem: If your business is migrating to SharePoint, your employees will take some time to understand its feature and functionality. Also, you have to train your staff about various aspects of the customized application. When your employees are being trained, the IT company has to provide prompt support to ensure that your work flow is not being affected. The service provider also needs to understand the framework in detail to answer the questions immediately. You must remember that it will take some time to streamline the process after migrating to SharePoint. So your employees will need constant support to continue the business operations.

When you are looking for the IT services companies that offer the best SharePoint support, it is important to do some initial request. You must gather information about the nature, types and quality of support provided by each company, along with it experience, expertise and professional credibility. At the same time, you must ask many questions to the service provider to ensure that the SharePoint support is customized according to the specific needs of your business.

We provide SharePoint bespoke development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified SharePoint programmers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Integrating ColdFusion Applications with Microsoft SharePoint

While ColdFusion is recognized as a much preferred programming platform, the recent trend is that of integrating it with Microsoft SharePoint. Why? Because SharePoint bespoke development helps create most personalized web products which greatly enhance the efficiency of operations in an enterprise. The latest version of the former platform, that is ColdFusion 9, will feature this integration. However, before going into the details of how this integration can be executed or the possible benefits of the process, let us understand few basics about SharePoint.

Basically a content management system at its best, SharePoint is an application that helps in accessing data stored in the MSSQL database. The integrated search services facilitated by it help in adding team collaboration context to the management of the data files, generated by the Microsoft Office Suite. When it comes to SharePoint, the site hierarchy and the permission- based roles become important. The key permission levels allow users to read, contribute, design as well as take full control of the SharePoint sites along with data after a certain stage.

With regards to the integration, the most important requirement is to understand the precise needs of the users. ColdFusion 9 incorporates the integration feature to solve most of the problems of a majority of users and not to satisfy only a handful of them.

Single-Sign-On Support
The demand for a single-sign-on (SSO) support is the most common of all requirements. This support would allow the ColdFusion applications working under SharePoint increase the level of the platform’s authenticity as well as security by means of removing the necessity of logins and authentication of the ColdFusion applications. Now, with ColdFusion 9, the task becomes easier as a result of an inclusion of the SharePoint integration files in ColdFusion. The installation and configuration of these files paves the way for the platform to invoke applications offering SSO support.

ColdFusion Applications
The concept of the platform applications running the Microsoft SharePoint platform might appear to be a little confusing. Web Parts and ASP.Net server controls are used to build the applications. The Web Parts can actually be pre- written in the controls provided by Microsoft, 3rd party controls as well as the individual controls. With ColdFusion 9 applications and the SSO support, necessary grounds for the perfect integration are ready.

Web Parts
Users might simply want to access data in the platform and may not be looking for running application as a Web Part. There are many who use the platform with the intention of deriving benefits out of user lists, views and groups, use the platform search option or work with the stored images and document workspaces. All these activities can be done with the help of exposed web services. However, a new tag is made available for maximum control as well as higher level of performance.

The Cfsharepoint Tag
The cfsharepoint tag is a powerful one, enabling manipulation of SharePoint by virtue of its several attributes. It facilitates around 50 actions. The tag can actually make the platform do anything. All that one needs to do is pass the credentials in a structured manner or supply the values individually in the form of domain, password and username values. The credentials must be stored in the Application.cfcfile.

An integration of ColdFusion with Microsoft SharePoint encompasses SSO, platform applications, Web Parts, SharePoint services along with the cfsharepoint tag. With these, the requirements of the users are catered in an effective manner while the incorporation of ColdFusion as an important part of an enterprise is also realized. The integration increases the power and productivity of the platform to great heights. Thus, seen from all respects, the merging of the two popular and prominent web application development platforms is of immense use for the experienced developers as well as that for the enterprises.

We provide Coldfusion Sharepoint Integration services. If you would like to know more about the expertise of our expert certified sharepoint developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Converting an ASP.NET site into a SharePoint site - Top 7 Issues faced and their solutions

SharePoint has become increasingly popular nowadays. A plethora of web projects are directly started in SharePoint. But still there are a lot many projects which remain out of the SharePoint scope and exist purely in the form of ASP.NET application.

A common task that becomes applicable during migration of an existing ASP site to a SharePoint site is transforming the landing page of the site to SharePoint page. That is where the problem starts. So far as .NET applications are concerned, they incorporate diverse modern technologies and tools such as URL Rewriting, SilverLight, MVC and so on. These tools are extremely common when it comes to .NET development. However, they can pose potential problems in the world of SharePoint. Let us discuss some of the issues faced in conversion of a .NET site into a SharePoint site.

1. Master.page: SP does not support the AutoEventWireup=”true” attribute on every page. So it is good to remove the same. Moreover, there is no support for user controls on master.page, so they can be moved to CONTROLTEMPLATES folder and references need to be changed. All classes from where inheritance takes place should have namespaces.

2. CSS: SP does not render 100% CSS validation. In this case, it is good to go for CSS customization and debugging, wherein you would be getting a clean CSS file. In this all the customization would be reset. Resetting reduces browser inconsistencies especially with respect to margins, default line heights, font sizes of headings, and the like.

3. Web.config: It is to be ensured that the correct sitemap defaultProvider from the ASP.NET web.config is being used. If the same is not done, all the sitemap elements would be recognized as SharePoint Publishing class elements, which is considerably different from asp.net SiteMap classes.

4. URL Rewriting: In case URL rewriting or any other specific modules are required, the < system.webServer > section needs to be created in the SharePoint config file and added accordingly. Moreover, all the DLLS need to be added to the list of SafeControls.

5. Code: So far as the DLLs are concerned, [assembly: AllowPartiallyTrustedCallers()] is a must. Again it is advisable to ensure that all the DLLs are signed. Namespaces are a must for every class.

6. Autodiscover service: It is seen that once an ascx control is created for use in SP which has access to Exchange 2010 through its web services. Everything is okay when the same is executed in the .NET test site. However, whenever the control is utilized in SP an error occurs and the following message is shown: “The Autodiscover service couldn't be located”. This problem can be warded off by adding the domain root certificate utilized by the exchange server in the form of “Manage Trust”.

7. Deployment of ASP.Net web application: In case you have a SP Portal where deployment of .Net Web application is required, the main goal is the integration of all the asp.net application created so that every application has a single access point within SharePoint. For this, initially a SP site collection needs to be created in the web application following which sub site creation is required for each application. In this way, separation of each application can be achieved.

SharePoint application development is a popular choice when it comes to developing web based projects. However, the above mentioned issues are often faced during migration of an ASP.NET site into a SharePoint site. Following the requisite solutions can do away or mitigate these issues and help individuals or organizations to go for successful migration. So, plan accordingly, utilize the proper strategies and you will definitely achieve the right migration solution that will ensure that you have complete control over your data.

We provide ASP.NET SharePoint migration services. If you would like to know more about the expertise of our expert SharePoint programmers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.